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Difference between revisions of "Poneloya"
Latest revision as of 18:23, 30 August 2014
Poneloya is a beach community 20 km west of the city of León through road 42. Mostly visited by local Nicaraguan's through the weekend. Tourist travel peaks from December through March. The language spoken in this town is Spanish, the same as most of Nicaragua.
The name Poneloya means "small seeds" in the indigenous language. The area was originally populated by indigenous groups who still control the transfer of property titles. However, the language spoken in this town is Spanish.
The town is a stretch of beach fronted by a number of restaurants and hotels. Daily temperatures range from 30°C to 40°C.
Get in[edit]
The easiest way to reach Poneloya is through the bus terminal "El Mercadito de Sutiaba", located in the city of Leon. Buses travel to the town every hour.
Get around[edit]
The only way to get around Poneloya is by foot or by taxi. Because the town is small, it can easily be walked around in and safe for pedestrians as most of the locals travel on bicycles.
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El Dorado One of the first restaurants you see, next to a place where you can swim. Excellent choice of menu, also breakfasts and sandwiches, and the fish is fresh! The owner Doña Rosa is like a godmother for most of her workers who she not only learns to cook, but also helps socially and financially. A place with a good heart. Possible pay by credit card.
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More Asian voices in whiskey debate
Assemble a group of whiskey drinkers and prime them with a glass or two, and the talk often wanders to that eternal whiskey debate: the Hillbillies versus Highlanders divide between Kentucky and Scotland.
But if the rising tide of Japanese and other Asian whiskeys entering the United States is any indication, "hills" may soon need to be stretched to include the Himalayas, "highlands" to encompass the Yamashiro Basin.
"A lot of people are surprised that the Japanese make whiskey, and it's really, really good whiskey - it's not something they just took to," says Mateo Hoke, bar manager at Nihon Whisky Lounge in the Mission District, which serves several styles of Japanese whiskey along with spirits from India.
"Just because it's new to the States and new to people's experience here doesn't mean it's a fly-by-night kind of thing. They take it very seriously, and they make some of the best whiskey in the world."
Japan's slow rise in the whiskey world started in 1923, when Suntory opened a distillery in Yamazaki, near Kyoto. Working with distiller Masataka Taketsuru, the company produced whiskey modeled on Scotland's famed spirits. Taketsuru left Suntory in 1934 to form a rival company, known today as Nikka.
Praise from critics
Broadly popular at home, Japanese whiskey has earned critical accolades in recent years as it has expanded into Western markets. Its image further boosted by the 2003 film "Lost in Translation," Japanese whiskey is becoming increasingly available in American bars at a time when single malts from other Asian producers are also entering the market.
Suntory currently exports 12-year-old and 18-year-old versions of its Yamazaki Single Malt, along with a limited 300-bottle edition of its Yamazaki 1984 anniversary whiskey. Last year, U.S. sales of Yamazaki reached 25,000 cases, and the company hopes to sell more than 30,000 cases in 2010.
In late 2009, Suntory launched its Hibiki 12-year-old blended whiskey in the U.S. and Europe, and the company may introduce single malts from another distillery, Hakushu, in coming years. Nikka, which distributes several styles of whiskey in Japan and Europe, including the acclaimed 21-year-old Taketsuru Pure Malt, is also planning to enter the U.S. market within the next year.
Liquor-store geography will become even more complex later this month. Five labels from Bangalore-produced Amrut single-malt whiskey enter stores in New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts. It should be in California by the end of the year.
Whiskeys such as Hibiki and Taketsuru have garnered significant awards in recent years; in his "2010 Whisky Bible," whiskey expert Jim Murray rated Amrut's Fusion as the third-best whiskey in the world.
Until recently, Nihon was one of few bars that carried Asian whiskey. Today, Suntory's whiskeys can be ordered in San Francisco bars such as Alembic, 15 Romolo and Bourbon & Branch, as well as in places such as Bar Deville in Chicago and PDT in New York.
Japanese whiskey is finding enthusiastic fans.
"It has everything you love about American and scotch whiskeys, but there's a whole other world of flavor that takes some time to figure out," says Andrew Friedman, owner of Liberty, a Seattle bar with a growing selection of Japanese spirits.
Friedman notes that Japanese whiskeys have the honey, caramel and vanilla notes that are familiar to drinkers of bourbon or scotch. But Friedman says he also detects things that he doesn't find in Western whiskeys, including elements of sour apples and pears in single malts such as Yamazaki and Nikka's Yoichi, and a light floral aroma in blends such as Hibiki.
More subdued
Japanese whiskey starts as malted barley, but unlike some heavily peated scotch, the smoky character in the Japanese version is often subdued.
By using different strains of yeast and, in Suntory's case, wooden fermentation vats, producers tease different flavors from the grain before distilling in copper pot stills.
The young whiskey is then aged in oak; for Yamazaki, this means using three types of wood: some made from used bourbon barrels; others from used sherry casks; and others from Japanese mizunara oak, which lends a mildly spicy sandalwood character.
The three batches are mixed before bottling; the Yamazaki 12-year-old is largely from American bourbon barrels, while the 18-year-old is mostly from sherry casks. For Hibiki, a mixture of spirits from three distilleries is finished for its final two years in casks that formerly held Japanese plum-wine liqueur, then filtered with bamboo and charcoal, a process that lends a trace of fruity richness.
Japanese whiskeys can maintain a liveliness in the glass even at advanced ages, and the 18-year-old Yamazaki has become a favorite among bartenders.
"It has this kind of precision to it, and it has so much going on," Hoke says. "Some people will say that's a Japanese cultural characteristic coming through, of every layer being very clearly defined."
While Nihon mostly sells Asian whiskeys by the glass or bottle, some bartenders have found the flavor of Japanese whiskey particularly suitable to cocktails.
Yamazaki Holiday
At Rickhouse in the Financial District, bar manager Erick Castro says that during the winter holidays the bar was selling a case of Yamazaki 12-year-old every week, most of it mixed in a seasonal drink called the Yamazaki Holiday. The same whiskey also features in one of the most popular drinks on Rickhouse's current menu, the Mamie Taylor - a classic highball-style drink with lime juice and ginger beer.
"The Yamazaki is a little softer, a little more feminine, and it plays really well with the ginger," Castro says. "We also take pride in introducing people to new spirits, and this works really well in that drink."
Still, a large-scale embrace of Asian whiskey may not happen immediately.
"It's going to take a while for people to grok it," Friedman says. "Every day, we taste people on Japanese whiskey, and those people are amazed to find that everything they love about American and scotch whiskeys is there, along with another factor that's really surprising."
A rundown of Asian whiskeys
While whiskeys such as Yamazaki and Hibiki are increasingly easy to find, others such as those from Nikka and Amrut may not be available locally until later this year or early 2011. They can be found at such Bay Area stores as D&M Wines and Liquors in San Francisco, K&L Wine Merchants in San Francisco and Redwood City, and Beltramo's in Menlo Park.
Yamazaki 12-year-old Single Malt ($42): Crisp and dry, medium bodied, with an aroma of orchard fruit and a gentle honeyed sweetness.
Yamazaki 18-year-old Single Malt ($100): Surprisingly lively for a whiskey of its age, the Yamazaki 18-year-old has a rich amber hue; a fruity, floral aroma; and a medium body full of honey, winter spices and fresh plums.
Hibiki Whisky Aged 12 years ($55): This blend of three types of whiskeys is bright and fragrant, with an aroma of stone fruit and a flavor that is dry and crisp, but with a complex jammy richness.
Nikka Yoichi 15-year-old Single Malt (not currently available in the United States): Made by Nikka at the Yoichi distillery in Hokkaido, it's rich in color and has an aroma of molasses and jasmine. A hearty yet austere flavor of coffee, honey and caramel with a slight touch of smoke.

subset: commoncrawl


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A Trestle Table for Under $35: How I Built a 15th-Century-Style Table for Pennsic From an Old Door and Pine Boards
If you're prone to dancing on tables, read no further. But if you want an authentic-looking, wooden trestle table that you can take to events, or even use as a craft table in your home, do I have some woodworking plans for you! You won't be able to dance on this table, sure, but its lightweight tabletop is perfect for lugging about without breaking your back … or your wallet!
How did these plans come about? In 2011 I joined the SCA and I needed a table for camping at Pennsic, but I didn't want to spend a fortune on it. I could buy a couple sheets of plywood, but I want to use this table year-round for crafts, so I preferred something that would look nicer. Alas, oak and even select pine is really pricey — $100 and up for the project. My solution? I combined an old recycled door (for the table top) with inexpensive pine (for the legs and spacers) for a 15th-century, St. Jerome-style trestle table that comes in at under $35.
What You Need:
- 10 feet of 2″ x 4″ pine – $3
- 10 feet of 2″ x 12″ pine – $10
- 8 feet of 2″ x 10″ pine – $7
- 1 36″ x 80″ hollow door slab – $5 at my local recycling center (or about $30 if you buy one new at Lowe's)
- Dowels- $1
- 4 (four) 1″x 2″ x 8″ firring strips – $3.20
- 1 12″ x 24″ x 1/2″ oak board – $3
- Wood glue – $2
Total for the Table: $34.20
Optional Extras to Make Your Table Fancier:
- Stain (Minwax Polyshades Antique Walnut Gloss) – $12
- Moulding to put around the table edges – $20
- Wood burning tool to make designs – $12
Equipment Used:
Jigsaw, circular saw, drill with boring bit, sander, chisel, mallet, pipe clamp, spring clamps, sawhorse, ruler, knife, permanent marker, safety goggles
Experience Required:
I'd say beginner-intermediate. I've only made a few things from wood (some benches, a two-step stair, some trellises), and I was able to create this table to my satisfaction.
So you may be wondering what in the Known World possessed me to use an old recycled door as a tabletop. I thought a door would be both inexpensive and light enough for me to carry on my own. I can't very well use this table at Pennsic if I can't even carry the tabletop to my camp site, now can I? A hollow door slab is really quite lightweight, but still strong enough to function as a great table. It's true, no table dancing, but how often does that really happen anyway (oh, right, I'm going to Pennsic … )
As for finding an old door, my local recycling center had about 50 of 'em, all for $5-$10. I was able to find one that hadn't ever had a door handle installed, too. And it was already stained a good color. Just needed a little dusting! You might have one hanging around the house from a remodel (or know someone who does). And I'm convinced that doing something like this is period — our ancestors recycled wood, including old doors, whenever it made sense. Wood was never wasted.
As to whether you can actually use a hollow door slab as a tabletop, yes, you can! This is a common practice among folks who need furniture on a budget, model train enthusiasts who need a place for their layouts, drafters who need a desk, and crafters who want a large workspace.
The Table Plans
So here's how to make the trestle table — these plans are adapted from those posted by Charles Oakley and bits and pieces picked up from other online sources.
1. Join the Leg Pieces: Cut the 2″ x 12″ board into four 30″ long pieces. Cut the 2″ x 10″ board into two 30″ long pieces. Place one of the 2″ x 10″ boards on the floor or some other flat place, and flank it with two of the 2″ x 12″ boards, creating 34″ x 30″ of wood. Repeat with the other three boards. Drill holes in the edges of the boards where they meet, then insert dowels into them and glue them in place with wood clue. Clamp and allow to dry for 24 hours.
2. Size the Tabletop (Optional): If you want to use the full length of your door slab, just skip this step. I wanted my table to fit into a free space in my studio so I could use it as a craft table, however, so I'm shortening my door slab. Here's how to do it: Measure 58″ inches on your door slab and score it with a knife (this prevents splintering when we cut it). Cut the door so it is 58″ long (I used a circulate saw). [Note: You can vary the length of your table, but be sure to change the length of your stretchers in step 3 accordingly.] Make room in the newly open end by pulling out/pushing in the reinforcements you'll find there. Cut your firring strips to about 34″ long and place them just inside the open end of the door for support on the end, using wood glue to keep the strips in place. Clamp and allow to dry.
3. Create the Stretchers: Take the 2″ x 4″ and cut into two 51″ lengths (shorten or lengthen this if you have a shorter or longer table than me). Trim the end of each spacer according to the diagram below. To create the mortise (the hole in the end of the stretcher), use a boring bit on your drill to drill in two places (either end of the bit of wood you want to remove), then use a jigsaw and/or chisel to remove the extra wood and smooth it down.
4. Create the tenon keys. The tenon key is the tapered bit of wood that will fit into the mortise and hold the legs and stretchers in place). You need four of them. Use the oak board (or just leftover pine) and cut the board into two 4″ x 7″ x 1/2″ pieces, then cut each of those boards diagonally in half and round the ends. Each key should be 1″ at the bottom and about 3″ at the top. You can this diagram (PDF file) to cut your tenon keys: trestle-table-tenon-key.pdf
5. Cut away the extra wood in your table legs once the wood glue has dried (wait at least 24 hours). Here is the diagram I used for my table legs. I drew the pattern in Adobe Illustrator, printed it out tiled, taped the pages together, cut it out, and drew the pattern onto my wood. Just flip the pattern over to do the other side of the wood. Here's the pattern I used in a PDF: trestle-table-leg-design.pdf
6. Assemble your table legs, stretchers, and tenons. Now that everything is cut out, put your table legs and stretchers together. You may find that some tenons don't quite fit in some mortises, and now is the time to narrow/widen as necessary. Once it's all put together just the way you like, take a permanent marker and write indicators on each board so you now how to assemble it quickly and easily next time.
7. Attach tabletop anchors. As the tabletop is so light, I want to avoid actually attaching the tabletop to the legs, just in case the legs were a bit too heavy for it when it was picked up or otherwise moved. So I attached simple 1″ x 2″ boards to the underside of the table, on either side of where the legs meet the table, to hold the table in place and prevent it from moving about when used. I attached the boards to the very sides of the door, where it is solid, for the most secure hold — and this has the added advantage of strengthening the underside of the door a bit. Now the tabletop just rests on top of the legs, but doesn't slide or move thanks to the anchor boards. (Note: If I find the tabletop moves or tilts during use, I'll simple drill holes through the anchor boards and into the top of the legs, then slip a dowel through for stability.)
And that's it … the table is done!
Now you can fancy it up, if you like. Since I'd saved so much in the construction of the table, I decided to put moulding around the edges and stain the moulding, legs, stretchers, and tenons. That cost an extra $32, although I'd already bought the stain for another purpose (my cooler cooler and my benches). Here is my completed table:
Tips I Learned the Hard Way:
- Buy dry wood. Wet wood is super heavy and hard to cut! And it won't take any stain until it dries anyway.
- If possible, smooth or otherwise plane the sides of the wood boards before you dowel and glue them together in step 1. This will really help the boards stay strong and stable.
- When you apply any wood glue, put glue on all surfaces to be glued in a thin, even coat. And clean up any wood glue that beads or globs during the drying process — it's really hard to get this glue off once it has dried.
- When staining with tinted polyurethane like I did, keep a cloth handy to wipe drips — it gets tacky VERY FAST and is hard to wipe up later. Also, do not go back over previously stained areas (anything older than, say, 3 minutes) until it is absolutely dry because it will glob and gunk and look yucky. This happened with mine, and I got better at the staining thing as I went along (told you I wasn't that experienced!)
All comments, questions, and suggestions for improvements most welcome!
Also, it's probably not clear who wrote and made this table, but it was me (Genoveva), working on my own. Gregor was in another state at the time! He's since helped with many other projects, but not this particular one.
Update 2/2014: This table continues to serve us very well and has survived six weeks at Pennsic so far. I am glad I used a hollow core door, especially now that we have quite a bit of stuff to bring to Pennsic and weight is an issue. The table gets near daily use at home, too, as my sewing table. Here are photos of the table in action:
And we're planning to bring it to Pennsic 43! And if you're interested in camp furniture, check out these other things we made:


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Top 10 US adult beverage trends for 2013
Researchers at the US-based market research group based their predictions on US sales surveys of spirits, wine and beer, plus interviews with brand marketers, on-premise and retail operators, bartenders and consumers.
The top trend, Wines go sweet, reflected a growing preference for Moscato-type wine and pink sparklers on menus across the US. "Red blends also proliferate, delivering a range of flavour profiles, many of which skew toward the sweet and medium-bodied end of the spectrum to appeal particularly to millennials [the millenial generation]."
The second top trend Beer comes to the table in high-end restaurants was revealed in the extensive beer lists, that are being crafted with the same care as wine lists. The trend is predicted to "take hold at upscale-casual and fine-dining restaurants, where beer's food-friendly nature further enhances the dining experience".
The third trend Next-level ciders indicated cider's growing popularity due to its broad appeal and food-friendly flavour profiles.
The researchers also attributed its popularity to increased distribution and marketing support as major supplier companies sought to exploit the category. New flavoured varieties are predicted to further bolster the category in both retail and restaurant/bar outlets next year.
Confectionery flavours
Just outside the top three, Unexpected flavors in unexpected places predicted the use of confectionary flavours. "The duality of sweet-and-savoury and other flavour combinations take flavoured vodkas into new realms, as do unique and unexpected offerings that inspire at-home and professional bartenders alike," said the researchers.
Also, Canadian whisky with flavoured expressions was calculated to appeal to younger tipplers, while rum and tequila continue to deliver new flavour experiences.
Next-level retailing was identified as a hot trend for next year that would take adult beverage retailing from 'package store' to 'bottle shop' concepts that focus on eclectic spirits, wine and beer offerings, hand selling of products and attention to the overall customer experience.
Legislative changes were likely to boost in-store sipping and sampling in convenience and grocery outlets.
Alcohol components
Mixers that matter will become evident next year as the trend towards improved quality prompts bar professionals to apply the same stringent standards to mixers as to alcohol components. More attention will focus on showcasing mixers, juice, flavourings, purees, bitters and other drink ingredients.
The trend towards New drinks on tap will be realised in innovative dispensing systems at bars and restaurants that bring spirits and cocktails to the tap, sometimes even at customers' tables. "Keg wines also deliver unique vintages in a fresh format," according to the research.
Digital drinks are predicted to become widespread as wine, cocktail and beer lists presented on digital tablets put descriptive information, photos and even food-pairing suggestions at guests' fingertips in bars and restaurants.
In-store tablets and digital kiosks will provide product details, ratings and serving suggestions at retail. "Smartphone apps, along with QR codes on everything from packaging to menus, also immediately connect consumers to interesting drink information," said the researchers.
Beer gardens indoors and out will become a hot trend as beer, food and socialising come to life in large open spaces, they said. Evidence for this trend could be seen in the growth of beer gardens − serving both beer and food − from New York to New Orleans and beyond.
Finally, Whisky wows reflected the growing popularity of whisky-flavored liquors, flavored whiskies, single barrel bourbons and new takes on rye. "In bars and restaurants, the storied brown spirit attracts more young adults and women, while consumers experiment with both traditional and new expressions for at-home enjoyment," said the researchers.
Top 10 US adult drink trends
- Wines go sweet
- Beer comes to the table in high-end restaurants.
- Next-level ciders.
- Unexpected flavours in unexpected places.
- Next-level retailing.
- Mixers matter.
- New drinks on tap.
- Digital drinks.
- Beer gardens indoors and out.
- Whisky wows.
Source: Technomic


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text: We've all been to concerts, seen the splendor of our favorite bands, and walked home happy. Behind those pressed, clean and/or theatrical experiences, there lives an entire society of road crews, bus drivers, long hours, bad food, managers, technicians and venue staff who make all that possible. Pedro Rodriguez just got off the road, and is heading back out in November for another grueling experience. In the meantime, I got to share some words with him about touring, Dimebag Darrell, horror movies and venues across our great country.


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|Eye on Psi Chi: Fall 2011
Eye on Psi Chi
Fall 2011 | Volume 16 | Issue 1
Questions (and Answers) About Elements of the Graduate Application
Mitchell M. Handelsman, PhD, University of Colorado Denver
View this issue in Digital and PDF formats.
The three-headed panel of Drs. VanderStoep, Handelsman, and Landrum combine our expertise on graduate school admission. This installment of our column was inspired by the lively discussion we had this past August at a workshop the three of us conducted at the APA convention.
Some programs ask for three letters of recommendation, and some four. Can I send all four of mine to every program?
VanderStoep: Usually not. But if your fourth is either a very distinct kind of letter—a famous psychologist who knows you but doesn't know you extremely well—or someone from your internship to complement three strong academic/research letters, it might work. But this is a risk. A selection committee member may think that if a person can't even follow directions on the application, the person does not warrant admission.
If everyone sent four letters, it would increase the size of the e-stack of letters that the committee needs to read. So that fourth letter better be good. (And make sure it's not from an athletic coach. As a former college coach, I can honestly say that I like coaches. But it's usually not appropriate to have a coach write a graduate program recommendation for you.)
Handelsman: You want to follow directions, but you also want to convey important information. The purpose of letters is to give programs a three-dimensional picture of you as a person. If it takes four letters to provide those three dimensions, I say go for it. Five letters, however, is a bit much if the program only asks for three.
This is a personal bias as you can tell from my colleagues' responses, but if a program is willing to reject a candidate when the only flaw in an otherwise perfectly crafted application (because you've followed all our other advice) is one extra letter, I'm not sure that's the kind of program I want to attend!
You might get some clues about how persnickety programs are by the requirements presented in other parts of the applications. For example, you might only want to send the required number of recommendation letters if programs specify the font styles to use in the application, or that personal statements beyond the word limit won't be read, etc.
Landrum: There is a good chance that my answer will vary from that of my learned colleagues. If a graduate program requires three letters of recommendation, I recommend you send three letters of recommendation, period. From my perspective, sending four letters means that you cannot follow basic instructions. If you can't follow the instructions to apply to graduate school, then just how well would you do in graduate school? An additional unsolicited letter, which may be well-meaning on your part, can add a substantial amount of work for graduate admissions committee members who may choose to go ahead and read your fourth letter.
If your graduate program has 300 applicants for 10 clinical PhD slots and 50% of the applicants add a fourth letter, you have: (a) not set yourself apart, (b) demonstrated that you chose not to follow the directions, and (c) contributed to committee members having an extra 150 pages of reading. If you are truly passionate about providing four letters, contact the graduate program in advance to determine whether this deviation from the norm will be harmful to your chances. You do not want to give a graduate admissions committee an automatic reason to disqualify your application.
What are programs looking for in a personal statement?
VanderStoep: Two things. First, programs are most interested in how your undergraduate experiences have shaped you intellectually. Second, they want to know how your interests fit with their programs of research.
More specifically, programs are likely looking to determine if your background would fit the research needs of a particular professor. Avoid vague references such as "I want to help people," or "I want to understand what makes people tick," or "I like research," or "I'm a good listener."
Handelsman: You'd be surprised how much information readers can glean from a personal statement, including indications of writing ability, self-reflection, organization, depth and breadth of knowledge, intellectual sophistication, neatness, and the ability to follow directions (such as length, answering the questions asked, etc.).
One of the things I look for is the ability to talk intelligibly (if not intelligently) about research experiences. This is a variation of the important "show, don't tell" adage in writing. For example: Rather than saying, "I worked with Dr. Bigwig on his research for six months," you might want to say, "For six months I helped Dr. Bigwig (a) interview participants using structured questions, (b) code data, and (c) develop graphic representations of our results. I also sat in on meetings with the research team in which we discussed interviews and EEG methods to test the relative contributions of serotonin and employment history on double parking in large urban areas. I received course credit and a footnote for my contributions."
Bottom line: First, read Sleigh (2009). Second, get started and write something. Third, get feedback from multiple people on multiple drafts.
Landrum: A complete answer to that question could fill a small book. To summarize my answer to fit in this limited space, graduate admissions committees are assessing how well you are a match and fit with the program and its faculty. At the same time they are getting a sample of your written communication abilities.
Remember when you are writing your personal statement to avoid the "one size fits all" approach. Every graduate school will have a personal statement prompt that is slightly different from other graduate programs. You should not write your personal statement once and then use the copy-and-paste approach for all the rest. Be sure to customize each personal statement so that you are precisely following the instructions provided by the graduate program. One researcher looking at various personal statements identified 13 different themes that are sometimes asked for, so you can see that one generic statement would be rather unlikely to satisfy 13 specific themes.
The personal statement is also about match and fit with the program and its faculty. Faculty members on the graduate admissions committee will read your personal statement carefully to see if you did your homework. So, if you want to work with children as a graduate student—and you state this in your personal statement—but no one in the department you are applying to works with children, then you are probably not a good match (and you'll have low odds of gaining acceptance into that program). Your personal statement will be viewed as a writing sample, as well as an early indicator of match and fit.
My GRE scores weren't high. Should I retake them?
VanderStoep: Probably not. The GRE is a very reliable test. Unless something drastic happens between Time A and Time B, it's unlikely you're going to do a lot better. Ask yourself what occurred in the interstice (GRE word) to make you think that you'll do better a second time? Did you study more? Were you very sick the last time? Take a practice test first and assess your progress. Do not take the GRE again unless you are very confident that you'll do better.
Handelsman: Judgment call. Do the programs you are applying to use GREs as a strict cutoff? Are your scores above the absolute minimums? Are they within a standard deviation of the averages for the programs? What do the other parts of your application look like? Is there a definable reason why you didn't do as well as you could have the first time? Is there a reason to believe that you will do better next time (such as studying in different ways, dealing with life stresses, etc.)?
Landrum: If the graduate program you want to go to requires the GRE, and if you truly want to go to that particular program, then my answer would be yes. But don't just retake the GRE without any additional study in-between GRE Time 1 and GRE Time 2; you might benefit from some test-retest bump in scores, but that outcome is something you probably don't want to risk. Get as much detail as you can from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) about your scores, where your weaknesses are, and what you need to improve upon to make yourself a competitive graduate program applicant. Find tutoring on campus and be sure to check the many free online resources. Another strategy is to seek admission to a graduate program that does not require the GRE. However, researchers have data that leads to the conclusion that GRE scores are a very good predictor of graduate school success as measured by graduate schools, so there is a specific reason that graduate schools use the GRE as one of the application criteria.
Once again, perseverance can pay off. If you want graduate school admission bad enough, you will make the sacrifices for meaningful study so you can do well on the GRE, thus enabling you to pursue your career goals.
How important is having an undergraduate internship on my transcript?
VanderStoep: It depends. Internships are most important for clinical, counseling, and other helping professions. If you are interested in a research-oriented program you should focus less on internship and focus more on working with a faculty member on an empirical project.
The internship experience is more important than whether or not it is on the actual transcript; just make sure you describe the internship in your personal statement. Give specific details about the skills you acquired while on the internship and how those skills align with the needs of the program to which you are applying.
Handelsman: It's important to have experiences as part of your background—research and/ or clinical, depending on the programs you are applying to. Those research or clinical experiences don't have to be done for academic credit—or pay—to be an important part of your application. Some schools, though, have wonderful internship programs that make it relatively easy to secure valuable experience.
I'm a huge fan of internships in general. A 2010 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (http://www.naceweb.org/so2010/0818/intern_salary/) found that social science undergraduates who had internships received initial salary offers that were $6,000 higher than their fellow students without internships.
Landrum: It is very important for students to complete an internship, whether they plan to go to graduate school, or not. There are a number of great benefits that can be reaped from internship participation. First, you are showing initiative by getting out of the classroom, where you can start to apply lecture and textbook concepts in the real world.
Second, you are practicing workplace skills and abilities that you will need after you receive your bachelor's degree. An internship is a realistic job preview in that you get to see what a particular workplace environment is really like (rather than a stereotyped workplace environment like we might see on TV or in movies).
Third, you are networking and building contacts in your community, and an internship supervisor is often a very good source for a letter of recommendation. Also, I've seen many undergraduate internships turn into job offers even before the student has formally graduated.
Fourth, an internship often helps a student "stand out from the crowd," because many students do not take advantage of this opportunity for whatever reason. Internships take advance planning and time to arrange, so other students who do not think ahead about their undergraduate experiences will unlikely be able to arrange a meaningful internship at the last minute. If you are given this opportunity, be sure to make the most of it.
Should I include my personal struggles in my personal statement?
VanderStoep: Almost always no. Exceptions would be very specific experiences, such as a war veteran wanting to study the psychology of trauma. Stories of previous personal trauma are often just that—traumatic and personal. But it's unpredictable how the readers of the letter will receive these stories. Unfortunately, you could be perceived as high maintenance, troubled, or lacking academic rigor. Given this risk, it's best to focus on the basics (see previous question).
Handelsman: A personal statement is not personal. It's a professional statement. Personal experiences might be relevant if you've learned professional lessons from them, but they are not, in and of themselves, credentials (Handelsman, 2011). If you've learned something from your struggles that translates into skills that are useful to graduate school, great. But you'll most likely be able to talk about those skills and their application without much detail about what it took to learn them.
Avoid the temptation to think of your personal struggles as if they were professional training [see Handelsman column]. To say that you are qualified to work with all divorcing people because of your own experience with divorce is almost like saying that because you've had a cavity, you would make a good dentist. Your own struggles may have taught you invaluable lessons about yourself that you can use in graduate school, but those struggles usually do not provide enough professional information to become a qualification.
Landrum: If you must include a mention of your personal struggles, do it vaguely. In general, graduate admissions committees do not need to know the details of what lead to a traumatic event in your life; however, these faculty members will be interested in your coping skills in an adverse situation. Avoid being labeled as a "wounded healer"—that is, a student who faculty members think they will have to "fix" first before the student can learn to help others.
In my opinion, it would be much more valuable to provide details about how you deal with adversity when you are put in challenging situations. Even in the best graduate programs, there will be stress and adversity. As with anything worth doing, you may experience times where you want to quit. The graduate admissions committee wants to know that when the going gets tough, you won't quit—so sharing examples of perseverance from your past, without too much intimate detail, is a good strategy to follow.
Sleigh, M. J. (2009, Summer). Organizing your personal statement: An outline to get you started. Eye on Psi Chi, retrieved from https://psichi.site-ym.com/?134EyeSum09bSleigh
Handelsman, M. M. (2011, Summer). Two misconceptions about psychotherapy. Eye on Psi Chi, retrieved from https://psichi.site-ym.com/?154EyeSum11hHandelsm.
Mitch Handelsman, PhD, is currently professor of psychology and a CU President's Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado Denver, where he has been on the faculty since 1982. In 2003–04, he was president of the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association. He is a licensed psychologist and a fellow of APA. He currently writes the quarterly column Ethics Matters for Eye on Psi Chi. His blog, "The Ethical Professor," can be found at www.psychologytoday.com.
R. Eric Landrum, PhD, is a former Psi Chi Rocky Mountain Regional Vice- President (2009–11). A professor at Boise State University (ID) and the chapter's faculty advisor, Dr. Landrum often give talks about issues such as graduate school admissions. He has over 225 professional presentations at conferences and published over 20 books or book chapters, and has published over 65 professional articles in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.
Scott VanderStoep, PhD, previously served as Psi Chi Midwest Regional Vice-President from 2002–06 and President from 2008-09. His educational journey began in the same place where he currently works—Hope College (MI)—and where he is associate professor and department chair. In his 18 years of college teaching, he has taught introductory, developmental, social, cognitive, industrial/organizational, research lab, psychology of religion, and advanced data analysis.
Copyright 2011 (Vol. 16, Iss. 1) Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology


text: When I was a kid, we had lived with a green parakeet named Timmy. He was an important member of our family. My mom would let him out of the cage and he followed us around the house. And, the best part was Timmy mimmicked what we said. Anything we repeated, became Timmy's dialogue during the day. My favorite phrase was "Sharon, bring me your brush!" Every morning my mom would call out the demand to comb my hair. Timmy would yell out the phrase as well. Timmy lived with us for 8 years, it was a said day when he died.


text:
This is a superb video which Hoi and I uploaded on a new Youtube channel - which Hoi set up while visiting me here in Italy. It was made and sent to me some time ago by an anonymous author - who wishes to remain so. Below is an extract of the message he sent me.
Highly recommended viewing - enjoy ! (and please diffuse on your own social media channels !)
full link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGsWhFKlXHA
Mr. Shack,
I decided to donate to you these materials, to do with whatever you wish. Once you take a look at what I have put together here, you will see that I think this information should be distributed as widely as possible. I have included quite a few translations (computer translated) as well for upload along with the video if possible. Not saying you have to upload this video... it is yours to do with what you wish, but I wanted to be as thorough as possible.. I am sure that it will be apparent to you when you go through this stuff. Don't be afraid to tell me if you think it sucks. If you think there are parts that need to be cut or added or expanded on let me know. I know you won't think it is perfect, so let me know how you really feel about it. I will save the project files so if you want I can still work on the movie if it needs to be modified.
I know I could have anonymously posted this, or just posted it under my identity, but I have some special circumstances that prevent me from doing that.. nothing too major, but I do feel a little hypocritical because I don't think fearing things that aren't really a threat is the way to do things. My feelings on that may change but right now I think giving it to you is the best idea. So I appreciate you taking a look at my work. I want your honest input especially because the film is a bit of an advertisment for your website and contains parts of the site by default because your site was the only good one I have found that covers the media manipulation.
The truth is an important thing. Anyways, enough babbling here is the index of the files on this drive. And I hope to hear from you.
Thanks a million!


text:
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Strangelove, the 1964 satire on nuclear war directed by Stanley Kubrick.
I first stumbled across the film on late night TV in the early 1970s. My delight was combined with a sense of amazement that the movie had been made at all. In the early 60s, before there was an antiwar movement or a counterculture, that a mainstream commercial film could be produced that ridiculed the government, the military, the very premises of the Cold War, with such complete abandon, was astounding.
The movie's full title is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It tells of an insane trigger-happy Air Force general named Jack D. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, who orders a first-strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union.
At the Pentagon, in the "War Room," the well-meaning but ineffectual American President Merkin Muffley, played by Peter Sellers, gets on the phone with his counterpart in the Kremlin, Premier Kissoff, to try to stop the planes from reaching their targets.
The film has three locations between which the story switches back and forth: General Ripper's air base, where Group Captain Lionel Mandrake, also played by Peter Sellers, tries to persuade the insane general to give him the recall codes; the War Room, a dark cavernous space with a huge oval shaped conference table revealed by stark overhead lights and surrounded by maps, at which the President meets with his joint chiefs of staff and other advisers, led by macho anti-communist General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott; and finally the inside of one of the planes sent to attack Russia, piloted by Texas good ol' boy Major Kong, played by Slim Pickens.
The Bronx-born Kubrick had already turned his back on Hollywood and was working exclusively in England. Because MGM's British studios were considered a write-off, Kubrick was able to establish complete creative control over his films there, which explains how he could get away with such unfettered satire.
Originally he'd bought the rights to a serious novel called "Red Alert" by English novelist Peter George. They decided to turn it into a black comedy, and Kubrick brought in Peter Sellers, who had helped make his previous film Lolita a success, to play multiple roles.
The final stroke, to add a bit of manic genius to the mix, was when Sellers suggested that his friend, American satirist Terry Southern, be brought in to help with the screenplay. His brilliant irreverence proved to be a perfect match with Kubrick's gallows humor. Southern's fingerprints are all over the film—with the silly names, the jabs at military pomposity, and the distinctly American flavor of much of the dialogue.
The many hilarious lines and bits of business from the movie have become justly famous, although I hesitate to give too many examples in case you haven't seen it. Sterling's Hayden's character, General Ripper, is a source of some epic rants, his anti-Soviet mania boiling down to an obsession with the fluoridation of water, which he believes to be a conspiracy by the reds to sap our "precious bodily fluids." Hayden plays it straight, so that the character's absurdity is coupled with an almost frightening believability.
The scenes in the War Room are perhaps the most memorable, and here there's an important factor that is not mentioned often enough. We don't usually think of George C. Scott as funny, but he had long stage experience in comedy, and it paid off here. General Turgidson capers about the room, at one point even falling down, while uttering priceless nuggets of belligerence such as "Mr. President, I smell a commie rat!" It is a peerless performance that tops off the film.
Kubrick's fascination with gadgets and technology is clear in the claustrophobic airplane scenes, with the crew methodically going through its technical procedures on the way to World War III, and Slim Pickens giving orders in a laconic Texas twang, all against the background of the song When Johnny Comes Marching Home.
Kubrick allowed Peter Sellers to improvise much of his dialogue, and this bears wonderful results in his third character, the ex-Nazi science advisor Dr. Strangelove. Wheel-chair bound, with glazed over eyes and a creepy grin on his face, the Doctor appears late in the movie to explain the consequences of nuclear war. It's a pointed satire on the American appropriation of ex-Nazis such as Werner von Braun. If you look hard enough, you'll see the other actors struggling to keep a straight face during Sellers' routine.
The film met with mixed reviews. Some thought it was wrong to make fun of such a deadly serious subject. It so happened that a film called Fail-Safe, starring Henry Fonda as the President, and with almost the exact same premise, but a serious drama, was made the same year. It's a good film, but in retrospect the satire of Dr. Strangelove was far more effective. It had moderate box office success, and later gained cult status over time.
Now, after the Cold War, one might think that this movie has become dated, lost its relevance. But nuclear weapons still exist in large numbers—that danger is not completely gone, and our complacency adds to the danger.
I credit Dr. Strangelove with having the nerve to say out loud, with raucous humor, what wasn't being said in public often enough—that the very idea of possessing weapons that can destroy all life on earth is lunacy.


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Seafrogs 40M/130FT Underwater waterproof camera housing case for Nikon J1
> Lens mold Polishing proceeding.
> Images Transfer mirrored LCD View Panel.
> O-ring gaskets seal operates housings 100% waterproof funtion.
> Durable ABS "Z-LOCK " Latch System with Safety Lock ,easy to open .
> Hi-Impact polycarbonate housing carries the camera to the depth to 40M.
> user buttons are labelled on housing, same like working on the camera itself .
> Neck strip ,hand strip ,waterproof seal ,silicone grease for the waterproof seal attached in every piece of camera housing.
>ATTENTION !Please Remove The Optional Grip On Your Camera(If you have one Equipped)Before putting the camera into Underwater Housing/Case.
|Product Type:
|Underwater housing
|Suitable Camera:
|Nikon J1
Compatible Lenses:
Polycarbonate, ABS plastic ,clear plate glass,Stainless steel,EPDM rubber
|Diving Depth:
|IP Grade:
|-0~40 centigrade
|Waterproof Element:
|O-ring gasker
|Packaging Details:
Common box packing/Gift box packing
OEM and customized packing is welcome
|Place of Origin:
Packing List:
Camera waterproof housing *1,Neck Strap*1, Wrist Strap*1, O-ring*1, User Guide*1.
What we provide:
- Common box packing / Gift box packing .OEM and Customized packing. Customized box packing is welcome.
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It takes around 4~7 days for the delivery.
As a leading supplier in China, Kaichengyi was founded in 2000. Seafrogs 、STARBEA is our company's brand.
Specialized in designing and producing wide range of Underwater housings and Diving accessories ,Our products include camera housings、Sport video housings 、Digital camera accessories、Underwater photography equipment ect.
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So we're able to provide you with very professional OEM and ODM service. We also provide mold service.
Thanks to our strict quality management system and responsible QC workers, we always focus on high quality products .our RMA rate can always maintained in a very low level, much smaller compared with our counterparts,and that's the reason why many big company have been working with us all along.
Moreover ,our company is open for great thoughts, if you have any great design and want to realize it ,then we're the right choice that can make it come true.
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[Check the waterpoof housing before use]
1.Check the waterproof housing, Make sure the exterior is not damaged and make sure the lens window is not dirty,if it is dirty,gently wipe it with a soft, fry cloth;
2.Check the O-ring and mounting groove, Make sure there is no debris(e.g. hair,sand or dirt) attached to the O-ring or in the mounting groove;
3.Check the housing in water, Place the housing in a depth of at least 200mm for more than 5 minutes, press the button to move the zoom lever to check for warter seepage.
[After the use of waterproof housing maintenance]
1.Use fresh water to clean the outside of the waterproof housing(water temperature not exceeding 40 degrees),and then use a soft cloth to dry,ventilated palce to dry;
2.If often used in salt water,soak in soapy water for more than 1 hour to remove sediment;
3.Use a soft cloth to clean the inside of the machine;
4.After the O-ring is removed for cleaning,it should be O-ring in a sealed bag, which can prolong the service life,or replace the waterproof housing, fo not lock ,put moisture absorption package with a sealed bag;
5.We recommend that you replace the waterproof o-ring once a year to ensure that the waterproof case remains waterproof.
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For any questions pls feel free to contact me , Zoe always be here service on you , Thanks!


text:
It is a cross between a California Sativa and our Super Skunk witch gives that tipical Indica Appearance.
Its very hardy inbred 10 plus years Stabilized hybrid. Big long clusters goldish green at harvest.
|THC Level
|Up to 17%
|Indica / Sativa
|Indica 60% | Sativa 40%
|Yield indoor
|Up to 475 gram / 16.8 ounces per sq meter
|Yield outdoor
|Up to 500 gram / 17.6 ounces per plant
|Height indoor
|Up to 90 cm / 35 inch
|Height outdoor
|Up to 230 cm / 91 inch
|Flowering time
|8 weeks
|Harvest month
|September / October
|Grow difficulty
|Easy to grow


text:
your hotelin the heart ofValletta!
The Osborne Hotel, set amongst Valletta's 320 monuments, is the perfect place to stay, for families & business travelers, to discover one of the most concentrated historic centres in the world.More
At our hotel, guests are guaranteed a home-from-home atmosphere.
The 63 room hotel has been recently renovated to provide guests with modern comfort and personal attention unprecedented in most Mediterranean countries.Read more
The Osborne Hotel's privileged location and comfortable facilities makes it the ideal place to soak up Valletta's cultural heritage and to organise successful events. Let yourself go with the quality of its cuisine, which can be enjoyed in its restaurant.
The Osborne Hotel makes life for the business traveller easier and more comfortable than ever before. Whether escaping the grind by the outdoor pool, planning a important event using our conference facilities, or meeting business associates for a drink at the bar, the Osborne Hotel is all about you.
Described throughout the ages as a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen. Europe's smallest capital city in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Valletta is a dynamic cultural and commercial hub full of activity, which has never ceased to change and move forward, yet retaining its original beauty and splendour.
As a UNESCO World Heritage site, the state of preservation of its well-constructed patrimony serves to make Valletta an example of historic conservation on a universal scale.
All rooms at the Osborne Hotel are equipped with air conditioning / central heating, a flat-screen TV with satellite channels, tea/coffee making facilities, direct dial telephone, safety deposit box and Wi-Fi access. A minibar is available on request. The Hotel features a trendy bar and restaurant. A rich buffet of local and international cuisine is available at lunch and dinner, and vegetarian meals are available on request.
An added amenity is the conference room on the sixth floor serviced by two lifts and a roof-top swimming pool with spacious sun decks for sunbathing while enjoying picturesque views of Marsamxett harbours and the blue Mediterranean sea.


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text:
As a child I thought sleep was glorious. I still think so. One would think certain habits like hitting the sack at a regular time or waking up by break of dawn would pall with passage of time. No. Man goes to sleep like a beggar with his worn out nerves and thoughts soiled by activities of the day. Even a saint is somewhat dented by it. I go to bed poor but wake up rich, feeling a power that I never thought possible. Every time. Over a cup of coffee when I have the whole world all to myself I command it to silence. My power is such even a cock crowing from a barn nearby cannot annoy me. With all that power at my command what I do? Like a beggar I polish my ivories that are ready to drop off, clear the nasal passages that are chokeful of phlegm and drag about my bones almost breaking apart,-osteoporosis sounds solid uh?don't you believe it!, and make water. Indignities heaped over me by day do not end there. I am an unmitigated fool to attend to great many silliness of not my making. Come day my age shows its unseemly, sordid side. Only company of people, those who make much of me can make me survive till I once again go to bed. Asleep I do not need the world or its uses. Even the one who warms the cockles of my heart is left out. Sleep, it is too potent to be shared with anyone.
Sleep is where I come to my proper estate. The whole universe and even God, host of angels belong to me, me alone. With such company who can tell me I am a nobody?


text:
Minds in Motion
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"The meaningful activity portion of the program is an excellent concept for mental stimulation, positive encouragement [and] promoting self esteem. My relative really enjoyed the interaction and social aspect with the other participants."
"I already requested to be in the next MiM program, good job by all involved"


text:
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Jump to: Board index » Junk Jack Retro » Gameplay Discussion
Multipackwolf wrote:I never run out of space.. And there are a lot less pointless items in JJx, so just about all the stuff you have is useful.
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text:
Ph.D. John Namjun Kim
2004 – present Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, German and Japanese, University of California, Riverside
1993-1995 Foreign Rights Manager, Passagen Verlag, Ges.m.b.H. (Publisher), Vienna, Austria
2004 Ph.D., German Studies, Cornell University; Dissertation: "From Perpetual Peace to Imperial War: 'Violence' in Kant, Kleist, Hegel, Miki and Tanabe"
2000-2001 Fulbright Researcher Fellow, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan; Dissertation research on Hegelianism in Japan and Japanese imperialism
2000 M.A., German Studies, Cornell University; Major Concentration: German Literature and Intellectual History, Minor Concentrations: Philosophy and Comparative Literature (Japanese)
1996 B.A., Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz; Major Concentration: German Literature, Highest Honors (summa cum laude) in Literature, Kresge College Honors, Phi Beta Kappa
1993-1995 Undergraduate Exchange Student, Universität Wien, Austria, Studies in Philosophy, Film and Psychoanalysis
Grants, and Fellowships
Regents Faculty Fellowship (2007 – 2008), Faculty Senate Research Grant (2005 – 2006, 2007 – 2008), and Dean's Research Grant (2004 – 2005), University of California, Riverside
Research Residency (June – July 2006), Hölderlin-Haus, Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, Germany
Mellon Foundation Grant for Research Workshop "Of Human Bondage" (2005 – 2006)
DAAD Faculty Summer Seminar (Summer 2005), Cornell University
Research Grant (Summer 2002), Research Center "Cultures of Memory," Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Germany
Fulbright Graduate Research Fellowship (2000 – 2001), Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan
Goethe Prize (for best research paper)(2000), Cornell University
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)(1998 – 1999), US Department of Education
Sage Graduate Fellowship (1996 – 1997, 2001 – 2002), Cornell University
Research Areas
critical theory and modern German and Japanese literature and philosophy, Kant and German Idealism, German Classicism and Romanticism, Heidegger and the Kyoto School
Function within the Center
Alumnus of the Institute for Advanced Study Konstanz (August 2008 - July 2009)
about the Kulturwissenschaftliche Kolleg
Research Project "Of Irony and Understanding" (with Dr. habil. Andreas Langenohl)
Selected Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
"Südländisch: The Optics of Fear in Reference to Foucault." Submitted January 2008. Under peer review.
"Kant's Secret Article: Irony, Performativity and History in Zum Ewigen Frieden," The Germanic Review: Literature, Culture, Theory 82.3 (2007): 203-26.. Peer reviewed.
"The Brink of Universality: German Cosmopolitanism in Japanese Imperialism." positions: east asia cultures critique. Accepted and forthcoming 2008. Peer reviewed.
"The Temporality of Empire: The Imperial Cosmopolitanism of Miki Kiyoshi and Tanabe Hajime." Pan-Asianism in Modern Japanese History. Ed. J. Victor Koschmann and Sven Saaler. London: Routledge, 2006. 151-167. Invited contribution. Peer reviewed.
Cultural Heterogeneity and Philosophical Nationalism." Quadrante: A Journal for the Synthesis of Regions, Cultures, and Class. 4 (2002): 259-69. Invited contribution.
In Preparation
Monograph: Ideal Imperialism: German Idealism in Japanese Imperialism
Co-edited volume with Richard Calichman, Beyond National Culture: Essays in the Honor of Naoki Sakai.
Contribution therein: "The Interior of the Interior or the Exterior of the Exterior: Heinrich von Kleist's 'Katechismus der Deutschen'"
Article: "Ethnic Irony: The Poetics of the First Person in Yōko Tawada and Its Translation in Paul de Man."
Translation: (German to English) Heinrich von Kleist's Die Hermannsschlacht
Tel. 07531 36304-18
Fax 07531 36304-44
E-Mail john.kim[at]uni-konstanz.de
Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg
Otto-Adam-Str. 5
78467 Konstanz


text:
Thanks 3B!bearsbearsbears wrote: In the end, I don't think it's all that important, but it's an interesting question
Beautiful "glass" bottom!
Great info too.
Don't you think the possibility of the presence of lead (from recycled glass or from marbles) is important?
edit/add - I notice (see my last past - I think I was writing it as you posted) that there is no "murky" border around your "glass" bottom. Is this indicative of silica fritt then (no weird border)?


text:
I'm still 10 away but that was never my goal. I've been a member for over 9 years and still haven't hit the number.
I do like to read others stories and hear other view points.
I have noticed that there are a few members with a gazillion posts or replies who seem to enjoy pot stirring and generally like debating.... about anything.!


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|スマル Sumaru
|Naruto Episode #178
|Appears in
|Voice Actors
|Ninja Rank
Sumaru (スマル, Sumaru) is a genin from Hoshigakure.
Like the other ninja of Hoshigakure, Sumaru takes part in star training, a technique which allow incredible chakra control, at the expense of severe physical health damage. He appears to be one of their more prodigious practitioners, being able to perform some of the more advanced techniques of star training at such an early age. Sumaru is told that his parents, Natsuhi and Hotarubi, were killed in battle guarding the fallen star, when in reality, they stole it in an effort to save the villagers from the damaging effects of star training. As a last favour, they asked the Third Hoshikage to lie to Sumaru to protect their family name.
Sumaru remembers his mother, especially, through a lullaby she sang to him as a child about a red star called Natsuhiboshi, which is actually the planet Mars. The lullaby serves as his motivation.
Sumaru has reddish-brown eyes and short smooth black hair that partly curls around his head and parts of his blue Hoshigakure forehead protector.
As a child Sumaru's hair was about the same length as it is now except that it is a lot more straight and not as smooth. He wore a light-coloured shirt.
Sumaru was able to use the Mysterious Peacock Method, seen when he was able to create wings made out of chakra to fly and when he could use said wings for an offensive attack. He also proved capable of using a technique called Chakra Rope, albeit in a smaller version when compared to his mother's. While cooperating with other genin he was shown to be able to sense the star's presence. When Akahoshi kidnapped Sumaru, Yotaka said that he was one of the village's most talented genin, indicating that Sumaru had much more control over the Star Chakra, in a similar way to that of his mother's.
Other Skills
When first shown, Sumaru showed some skill with a crossbow, using it in conjunction with a rope to cross the "Devil's Ravine", while showing great sense of balance when running over aforementioned length of rope.
Part I
Star Guard Mission
He first encounters Naruto at the edge of the Land of Bears where he stops the Konoha genin from walking into a canyon filled with toxic gas, the "Devil's Ravine". Naruto misinterprets Sumaru's actions as an attack, and has a brief, uneventful battle, during which, the Konoha genin witnessed first-hand the Mysterious Peacock Method in battle. When the star is stolen by a mysterious bandit, Akahoshi charges Sumaru and his friends to get it back. Sumaru is taken away by Akahoshi posing as the real mysterious bandit as the other ninja collapse from the side effects of the Star Training.
Akahoshi puts him in "suspended animation," and as Sumaru lays unconscious, he dreams about when the Third Hoshikage tells Sumaru about his parents dying to protect the star, and tells him to be strong and to make his parents proud. Sumaru is rescued by Tenten and Rock Lee. Shortly after, Sumaru is guiding Neji, Tenten, and Lee, with the other Hoshigakure genin, to find the mysterious bandit that stole the star. They all find the bandit, who is actually Sumaru's mother, Natsuhi. Akahoshi uses his jutsu to try to kill him. Akahoshi briefly attacks Natsuhi and wounds her, then Naruto, Neji, Tenten, Lee, and Hokuto, flee to Natsuhi's hideout where Sumaru and Natsuhi rest and recover.
Sumaru awakens, seeing his mother for the first time in ten years. Natsuhi awakens, confessing the reasons why she abandoned Sumaru. He tells Natsuhi to leave him alone, and says that he has these dreams where he cannot catch up with two figures, Sumaru's parents. Sumaru is upset by his mother's abandonment, and says that his mother would never do that. However, he is then in tears and forgives his mother. Sometime later, Sumaru awakens to find his mother's bed barren, and realises what she is about to do: to steal the star to prevent further use. The team of Naruto, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Hokuto, and Sumaru rush to stop Natsuhi, but they are too late; Sumaru's pendant breaks, indicating Natsuhi's death. Sumaru vows to avenge his mother's death, and flies to where Natsuhi's body lays. Akahoshi orders the training hall to be set with flames.
As this is going on, Sumaru realises why his mother abandoned him, and forgives her before the training hall is destroyed. It was revealed that Sumaru survived the blast by his mother's spirit. Sumaru, along with the other Hoshigakure genin, are healed by the Konohagakure medical ninja. Sumaru final vow is that he will become Hoshikage before Naruto, and will make his village the most powerful village that will exceed the Five Great Nations, even without the star's power.


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Kurt Nimmo
Obama and his coterie of anti-Second Amendment advocates are not willing to accept the Senate's rejection of gun legislation. According to BuzzFeed, Obama will force his will on the American people through unconstitutional executive actions.
According to a BuzzFeed source, Joe Biden told gun control "stakeholders" via conference call on Thursday that the fight against the Second Amendment is not over and additional laws will be imposed on firearms owners.
"Look, I know you're going to say that I'm just being an optimist and I'm trying to put a good face on this. But, you know, I've been around here a long time and we've already done, because of you, some really good things," Biden said. "Number one, the president is already lining up some additional executive actions he's going to be taking later this week."
"Already we have put out notifications to all communities that if they want school resource officers to use their portion of the COPS grant to be able to deal with a school resource officer or someone in the school who's a counselor, or whatever they need," Biden continued.
"Secondly, we also have pushed forward grants for new and available funding for dealing with training teachers and dealing with alerting them to high-risk, you know, kids in their communities and their school that are signs that they're going to have a real problem and may be the very kids you need to get to now before they end up like an Adam Lanza," he said. "We also are going to have a national mental health dialogue where we're going to vastly expand mental health availability under the Mental Health Parity act as well as the Affordable Care Act."
Biden said the Obama administration is also looking at ways to increase the number of Americans denied the use of firearms."We also are reviewing the list of prohibited purchasers to maybe expand that list of prohibited purchasers," he said. "Granted, only 60% of people who go for a purchase are doing it [background checks]."
The White House later told BuzzFeed the executive actions Biden was referring to during the call are part of Obama's original list of 23 executive actions, writes Evan McMorris-Santoro.
In January, Obama issued a number of executive orders to "reduce gun violence."
"From passing the sweeping healthcare reform bill on a party-line vote, to the largest use of executive czars in our history, to initiating new policies on things like immigration and gun control by executive order, Obama seeks to leave 225 years of constitutional separation of powers behind," David Davenport wrote for Forbes in January. "This needs to be exposed for what it is: a series of constitutional end-runs and a power grab by a frustrated and legacy-driven president."
Following the Senate defeat, Obama accused Congress of dishonesty. "Instead of supporting this compromise, the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill," he said on Wednesday as gun violence victims and former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords looked on.
"Yesterday, President Obama said it was a shameful day for the Senate, and it probably was, I agree," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from the Senate floor on Thursday. "But we should make no mistake: This debate is not over, in fact this fight is just beginning."
Reid promised to revisit the legislation at an unspecified future date. "We're going to come back to this bill," he said.


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Jesus' Cross Invites Us to Be Smitten by His Love, Pope Says
The Holy Father addressed the faithful at the Way of the Cross.
RIO DE JANEIRO — The cross of Christ is an invitation for us to fall in love with him and to then reach out and help our neighbors, Pope Francis said today at the conclusion of the Way of the Cross at World Youth Day.
"The cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love, teaching us always to look upon others with mercy and tenderness," the Pope prayed July 26 on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.
"Especially those who suffer, who are in need of help, who need a word or a concrete action, which requires us to step outside ourselves to meet them and to extend a hand to them."
World Youth Day's Stations of the Cross stretched across a mile of Brazilian beachfront, concluding at the stage from which Pope Francis address the crowd of faithful.
The reflections for the devotion were written by two members of the Priests of the Sacred Heart, Fathers Zezinho and Joaozinho, who are known in Brazil for their commitment to youth ministry.
Pope Francis began by calling the Way of the Cross an accompaniment of "Jesus on his journey of sorrow and love" and "one of the most intense moments of World Youth Day."
He recalled that the World Youth Day cross was entrusted to the young people of the world by Blessed John Paul II in 1984. It has traveled throughout Brazil since the last World Youth Day, preparing the country for to be the destination for millions of pilgrims.
"No one can approach and touch the cross of Jesus without leaving something of himself or herself there and without bringing something of the cross of Jesus into his or her own life," Pope Francis said.
He addressed three questions to the pilgrims, which he hoped "will echo in your hearts": What have you left on the cross? What has Jesus' cross left for you? And what does his cross teach us?
Whatever we leave on the cross--"our fears, our problems and our sufferings, even those which are deepest and most painful"--Jesus "walks with us" and takes it upon himself, Pope Francis assured the pilgrims.
He demonstrated this by relating that when St. Peter was trying to flee persecution in Rome he was met by Jesus. The first Pope asked, "Domine, quo vadis?" or "Lord, where are you going?"
Christ replied that he was going to be crucified again. "At that moment," Peter's Successor explained, he realized that he had to follow Christ to the "very end," yet "he also realized that he would never be alone on the journey."
"Jesus, who had loved him even unto death on the cross, would always be with him," the Holy Father said.
The Pope called to mind that, nailed to the cross, "Jesus unites himself to the silence of the victims of violence, those who can no longer cry out, especially the innocent and the defenseless; with the cross, he is united to families in trouble, those who mourn the loss of their children or who suffer when they see them fall victim to false paradises, such as that offered by drugs."
"On the cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world where tons of food is thrown out each day; on the cross, Jesus is united with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs or simply for the color of their skin; on the cross, Jesus is united with so many young people who have lost faith in political institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and corruption."
"He unites himself with those young people who have lost faith in the Church or even in God because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the Gospel," he added.
Humanity's sin and suffering, "including our own," is on the sross, Pope Francis said. Jesus accepts this "with open arms, bearing on his shoulders our crosses," he added.
Christ carries our crosses, the Pope said, and tells us: "Have courage! You do not carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I have overcome death, and I have come to give you hope, to give you life."
The cross gives us an assurance of "the unshakable love which God has for us," Pope Francis preached. "A love so great that it enters into our sin and forgives it, enters into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it. It is a love which enters into death to conquer it and to save us."
Jesus' cross contains "all the love of God, his immeasurable mercy."
This love is a love in which we can have faith, Pope Francis said. "Dear young people, let us entrust ourselves to Jesus, let us give ourselves over entirely to him!"
Christ is the source of "hope and life," he said, because Jesus has conquered "evil, suffering and death" through the wood of his cross.
Pope Francis addressed the people of Brazil, noting that "the suffering Christ is keenly felt here," but that "there is no cross … in our life which the Lord does not share with us."
The lesson of the cross, the Pope taught, is to look with "mercy and tenderness" on our neighbors.
He took note of the many people who were part of the first Way of the Cross: "Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women."
"Sometimes we can be like Pilate," the Bishop of Rome lamented, washing our hands of a situation instead of having "the courage to go against the tide to save Jesus' life."
"Dear friends, the cross of Christ teaches us to be like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood; it teaches us to be like Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all the way to the end, with love and tenderness."
"And you? Who are you like? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary?" he asked.
The Pope urged the pilgrims to bring, along with him, "to Christ's cross our joys, our sufferings and our failures."
"There we will find a Heart that is open to us and understands us, forgives us, loves us and calls us to bear this love in our lives, to love each person, each brother and sister, with the same love. Amen!"


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Smart is sexy. A weighty conversation is not only intellectually stimulating but really gets the blood flowing. BBC America's premiering a new show tonight (February 11) at 10:20pm Eastern called Bang Goes the Theory, featuring four young, sexy hosts having fun testing theories.
On this occasion, let's take a peek at some other Brits who are making science sexy:
Adam Rutherford
Field: Genetics
Broadcast: He currently hosts the BBC documentary called The New Genetics reporting on a major discovery debunking the Human Genome Project that previously suggested that only 1 percent of human DNA codes for proteins was functional and the rest is "junk."
Draw: He's able to break down complicated theories in an interesting way based on his charming storytelling ability.
Podcast: Listen to Rutherford explain how a genome actually works.
Read More


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There may be more than one way to stop Iran, but is there any way to stop the folly on NYT's op-ed page?
OK, there is so much wrong with the Leverett's op-ed piece in the New York Times that I didn't even know where to start. So I went through the article expressing my dismay at its content almost paragraph by paragraph. Forgive my ranting and grammatical errors.
THE Islamic Republic of Iran is not about to implode. Nevertheless, the misguided idea that it may do so is becoming enshrined as conventional wisdom in Washington.
The Islamic Republic is imploding. It's been imploding for years. The system is cracking apart under the great force of a population that wants simple things: the freedom to kiss in public; the freedom to make fun of their president and their religious figures; the freedom to surf the Internet. These may seem like trivialities, but when you live in a society like Iran's where all are restricted and where offenders can be harshly punished, they gain importance.
For President Obama, this misconception provides a bit of cover; it helps obscure his failure to follow up on his campaign promises about engaging Iran with any serious, strategically grounded proposals. Meanwhile, those who have never supported diplomatic engagement with Iran are now pushing the idea that the Tehran government might collapse to support their arguments for military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets and adopting "regime change" as the ultimate goal of America's Iran policy.
I have been for engagement for years. But there is no more room for engagement. We needed a president willing to engage with Iran ten years ago. This regime does not want to be engaged, they want to be isolated. The regime will never negotiate in good faith. They have proven this time and time again. Any negotiation with the US will be a charade at best.
We now know that there really is a huge population willing to be talk with us. While the regime may not fall today or tomorrow, it will fall. And when it does, I hope that my government has chosen to be on the right side of history.
When 3 million people in Tehran dared to take to the streets on June 15th , we entered another phase of history. Any one of us who has spent time in Iran knew what a watershed moment that was. And when I write dared, I mean dared. There is no one in Iran who is naïve enough not to know what kind of personal risks demonstrating creates. Those risks have become even greater since the initial demonstrations. State sanctioned rape, torture, and the threat of execution are very real.
Let's start with the most recent events. On Dec. 27, large crowds poured into the streets of cities across Iran to commemorate the Shiite holy day of Ashura; this coincided with mourning observances for a revered cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who had died a week earlier. Protesters used the occasion to gather in Tehran and elsewhere, setting off clashes with security forces.
Important events, no doubt. But assertions that the Islamic Republic is now imploding in the fashion of the shah's regime in 1979 do not hold up to even the most minimal scrutiny. Antigovernment Iranian Web sites claim there were "tens of thousands" of Ashura protesters; others in Iran say there were 2,000 to 4,000. Whichever estimate is more accurate, one thing we do know is that much of Iranian society was upset by the protesters using a sacred day to make a political statement.
The writers show how little they know about Iranians and about the situation. There was an incredible amount of security on the streets of cities all over Iran. Shots were fired into the crowd early in the day. I invite them to play a thought game: how many people would have turned out had there been a minimal security presence. I also invite the authors to remember that there was no call for organized opposition either at the funeral of Montazeri or on Ashura.
Vastly more Iranians took to the streets on Dec. 30, in demonstrations organized by the government to show support for the Islamic Republic (one Web site that opposed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in June estimated the crowds at one million people). Photographs and video clips lend considerable plausibility to this estimate — meaning this was possibly the largest crowd in the streets of Tehran since Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's funeral in 1989. In its wake, even President Ahmadinejad's principal challenger in last June's presidential election, Mir Hossein Mousavi, felt compelled to acknowledge the "unacceptable radicalism" of some Ashura protesters.
Pulease. There is no way a pro-government demonstration can ever be valid when the right to opposition demonstration does not exist. I invite the authors to remember that no one claims that there are no pro-government factions in Iran. Of course there are. There are millions of people dependent on the government for aid and work. The fact is, many of the demonstrators were paid up to 200,000 tumans each. (OK, this is hearsay from a friend who knows people who got paid). It was a day off, for God's sake. Children and civil servants were bused in as were dependent families.
The focus in the West on the antigovernment demonstrations has blinded many to an inconvenient but inescapable truth: the Iranians who used Ashura to make a political protest do not represent anything close to a majority. Those who talk so confidently about an "opposition" in Iran as the vanguard for a new revolution should be made to answer three tough questions: First, what does this opposition want? Second, who leads it? Third, through what process will this opposition displace the government in Tehran?
In the case of the 1979 revolutionaries, the answers to these questions were clear. They wanted to oust the American-backed regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and to replace it with an Islamic republic. Everyone knew who led the revolution: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who despite living in exile in Paris could mobilize huge crowds in Iran simply by sending cassette tapes into the country. While supporters disagreed about the revolution's long-term agenda, Khomeini's ideas were well known from his writings and public statements. After the shah's departure, Khomeini returned to Iran with a draft constitution for the new political order in hand. As a result, the basic structure of the Islamic Republic was set up remarkably quickly.
Wow. What a simplistic view. I am not an expert on the revolution, but even I know that this is wrong. Many in Iran were fighting for a communist state, others for a socialist state, others for a Marxist state. They decided to unite behind Khomeini and were indeed shocked by his later policies. In fact, there were two years of relative freedom before the Islamic state cracked down and showed its true colors.
Beyond expressing inchoate discontent, what does the current "opposition" want? It is no longer championing Mr. Mousavi's presidential candidacy; Mr. Mousavi himself has now redefined his agenda as "national reconciliation." Some protesters seem to want expanded personal freedoms and interaction with the rest of the world, but have no comprehensive agenda. Others — who have received considerable Western press coverage — have taken to calling for the Islamic Republic's replacement with an (ostensibly secular) "Iranian Republic." But University of Maryland polling after the election and popular reaction to the Ashura protests suggest that most Iranians are unmoved, if not repelled, by calls for the Islamic Republic's abolition With Mr. Mousavi increasingly marginalized, who else might lead this supposed revolution? Surely not Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president who became a leading figure in the protests after last summer's election. Yes, he is an accomplished political actor, is considered a "founding father" of the state and heads the Assembly of Experts, a body that can replace the Islamic Republic's supreme leader. But Mr. Rafsanjani lost his 2005 bid to regain the presidency in a landslide to Mr. Ahmadinejad, and has shown no inclination to spur the masses to bring down the system he helped create.
Iranians do not want to go back to the beginning that is what scares them about revolution. They want reform of their system. Evolution, not revolution. Unfortunately, this regime has shown that it will not allow that.
Nor will Mohammad Khatami, the reformist elected president in 1997, lead the charge; in 1999, at the height of his popularity, he publicly disowned widespread student demonstrations protesting the closing of a newspaper that had supported his administration.
Many of the Westerners who see the opposition displacing the Islamic Republic emphasize the potential for unrest during Shiite mourning rituals, which take place at three-, seven- and 40-day intervals after a person's death. During the final months of the shah's rule, his opponents used mourning rituals held for demonstrators killed by security forces to catalyze further protests. But does this mean that a steady stream of mourning rituals for fallen protesters today will set off a similarly escalating spiral of protests, eventually sweeping away Iran's political order?
That is highly unlikely. First, Ayatollah Montazeri had unique standing in the Islamic Republic's history; it is not surprising that the coincidence of his seven-day observance with the Ashura observation would have drawn crowds. His 40-day observance — which will fall on Jan. 29 — and the early February commemoration of the 1979 revolution might also encourage public activism. But there is nothing in the Islamic Republic's history to support projections that future mourning rituals for those killed in the Ashura protests will elicit similar attention.
For example, in late 1998 four prominent intellectuals were assassinated, allegedly by state intelligence officers, prompting considerable public outrage. Yet the mourning rituals for the victims did not prompt large-scale protests. In 1999, nationwide student protests were violently suppressed, with at least five people killed and 1,200 detained. Once again, though, the mourning dates for those who died did not generate significant new demonstrations. Likewise, after the presidential election in June, none of the deaths associated with security force action — even that of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose murder became a cause célèbre of the YouTube age — resulted in further unrest.
Once again, I ask, have the writers been paying attention? It's 2010, not 1998. The regime knows the mourning ritual protest well and has been cracking down on funerals and public mourning. This opposition cannot use the same playbook that the first Islamic revolution used. They have to be more creative. They are using different actions to show dissent. It's more clever and subtle than a few mourning demonstrations.
In keeping with this pattern, the seven-day mourning observances for those killed in the Ashura protests generated no significant demonstrations in Iran. Clearly, comparisons of the Ashura protests to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, projecting a cascade of monumental consequences to follow, are fanciful. The Islamic Republic will continue to be Iran's government. And, even if there were changes in some top leadership positions — such as the replacement of Mr. Ahmadinejad as president by Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Parliament, as some Westerners speculate — this would not fundamentally change Iran's approach on regional politics, its nuclear program and other matters of concern.
The Obama administration's half-hearted efforts at diplomacy with Tehran have given engagement a bad name. As a result, support for more coercive options is building across the American political spectrum. The president will do a real disservice to American interests if he waits in vain for Iranian political dynamics to "solve" the problems with his Iran policy.
Then he should not wait in vain, he should show support for the grassroots civil rights movement in Iran.
As a model, the president would do well to look to China. Since President Richard Nixon's opening there (which took place amid the Cultural Revolution), successive American administrations have been wise enough not to let political conflict — whether among the ruling elite or between the state and the public, as in the Tiananmen Square protests and ethnic separatism in Xinjiang — divert Washington from sustained, strategic engagement with Beijing. President Obama needs to begin displaying similar statesmanship in his approach to Iran.
Iran is not China and never will be China. China is home to one-quarter of the world's population and owns much of the US debt. Face it, we have no leverage in China. Three million people in Iran took to the streets on June 15th. More than 1% of Iran's total population demonstrated together, took risks together. This movement is far from dead. Just because the authors do not know the names of its future leaders does not mean that they do not exist.
UPDATED with some links:
Reza Akhlaghiwrites about why this movement does not have obvious leaders:
Traumatized by their exposure to the unmasked face of their rulers and subsequently emboldened by the above grand detachment, Iranians feel reinvigorated and confident of their ability to confront Iran's weakened theocracy and its multilayered security forces. Organizationally, the struggle in Iran has a completely flat structure with no central figurehead. With a traumatized mind but reinvigorated determination, Iranians appear to be on a path to chart a new role for them in the 21st century. And they appear unyielding in charting this new role based on recognition of and respect for human dignity without dependence on heroic figures.


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